Odell Beckham has quiet game, again

Two weeks ago, Browns receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was focused on finding his voice as a leader. Since then, he’s lost plenty of his punch as a player.

For two straight games, Beckham has caught only two passes, last night generating only 27 yards. To make matters worse, an OBJ punt return gone awry essentially became the dagger for the Dawg Pound on Monday night.

“I was just trying to make a play,” Beckham told reporters after the game regarding a desperate effort that saw Beckham retreat by seven yards while looking in vain for an opening (and holding the ball in one hand) before having it knocked from his grasp. “I’m way too good to do that. I just did too much. I felt like maybe it could give us a spark or something like that. You could feel the energy they had already taken out of us. To be honest, it just seemed like we were ready to go home and I just wanted to keep fighting to the final whistle. I just did way too much.”

Embedded in that explanation is an intriguing observation. Beckham sensed that the energy was gone and that “we were ready to go home.” That clearly didn’t sit well with Beckham, which may propel him into a more vocal and visible role in the locker room and on the sideline.

On the field, his role hasn’t been all that visible. Alhough the Browns aren’t forcing passes to Beckham, they’re designing plays aimed at getting the ball in OBJ’s hands without throwing it to him. He threw the ball on the first snap of the game, and he ran it twice for 15 yards.

“Teams are going to do their stuff to take him out of the game, but we also have to take advantage of matchups when we do have them,” quarterback Baker Mayfield told reporters after the game.

Coach Freddie Kitchens denied that it has been harder to get Beckham involved in the offense than Kitchens thought it would be, and he downplayed talk that red-zone throws aren’t going to Beckham.

“[W]e’ve got other guys that we’re targeting in the red zone, too,” Kitchens said. “[Antonio] Callaway’s wide open tonight in the red zone. So our quarterback’s going to go through a progression, all right? Sometimes Odell’s the first read in that progression, sometimes he’s the second, sometimes he’s the third, sometimes he’s the fourth.”

Still, Beckham surely expected to be getting the ball more often. With 335 receiving yards through five contests, Beckham is averaging 67 per game. That’s 20 yards per game fewer than his last season with the Giants, and more than 40 yards lower than his 108.75 per-game average from his rookie season.

And it’s one thing for Beckham to not be involved if the team is winning. If they’re losing and also (in Beckham’s assessment) lifeless, his lack of opportunities eventually could morph into regret, reevaluation, and eventually a desire for another relocation.

He’s not as good as everyone thinks. He struggles against physical corners and he’s not known for being a clutch performer like Jerry Rice or Antonio Brown. Granted, Rice and Brown had better QB’s throwing them the ball, however one advantage they both have is that they were/are not as injury-prone as Beckham is. If the Browns improve their O-Line and Baker has more time to throw, we will see if Odell is that guy again. Until then, he’s no longer Top 5 based on production.

He was traded to perhaps the worst team possible. Can you imagine if he was in SF, Seattle, LA, NE, NO, etc.? Now he has to press to try to ‘make something happen”…never good, even for superstars (hence the fumble and two tipped passes)

Beckham dropped a screen pass on the 1st drive of the game. I think it was the 3rd snap from scrimmage in the game. Put the Browns in 2nd and long. Helped kill that drive. beckham then dropped a wide open 3rd down and long throw to him minutes later. That KILLED their 2nd drive.

Would you keep throwing him the ball? He set the tone for the balance of the team to waddle in self pity, roll over, and get killed.

Hard to get him the ball when eric kush is getting beat like a drum and Greg robinson has no help which he clearly needs . The browns line is the worst line in the nfl starting with trash eric kush. Kush shouldn’t be starting in the nfl let alone the xfl.

The Browns looked unprepared last night and were definitely underwhelming. QB play was bad – this was probably Baker Mayfield’s worst game yet. They can easily be 2-4 heading into the bye after the Seattle game this Sunday.

If you saw his punt return fumble, you know why he’ll be leaving Cleveland soon, and onto his 3rd team. The guy is just way too much into trying to be a superstar, and forgets that the object is winning. Not to mention all his dropped passes. But he looks cool. OMG.

It’s Eli’s fault
———-
I agree. losing becomes a habit and then there’s the character example of fraud, lieing to the fans before having to pay up to sweep it under the rug. worst example for a young player. i think and hope daniel jones is smart enough to avoid falling into the entitlement mindset that damaged a young impressionable OBJ.

At least he’s still in the league, for now. Ask Antonio Brown what being a diva gets you. Beckham already found out the hard way it gets you sent to Cleveland with mighty mouse with an attitude towards other players based on the college they attended it appears? Anyway, act like a Diva, become a nobody or even worse, no team.

the entire world saw his 1 handed grab a million times. then last night mayfield throws him a pass a tiny bit over his head that would have been a huge gain and a long 3rd down conversion 25 yards past scrimmage and he gets both hands on it but cant catch it. then he blames his teams energy and says hes doing all he can. thats obj for you in a nutshell

“To be honest, it just seemed like we were ready to go home and I just wanted to keep fighting to the final whistle. I just did way too much.”

Yep that’s the Odell I know and love. Everyone else wanted to go home according to him, that’s why he made a dumb play. EVERYONE ELSE wanted to go home, but not him. It’s a team game guys, unless Idell is playing.

I think it’s a coaching issue, honestly. They brought in several huge personalities that had never played together before, and hired a new head coach who had never been a head coach before. There’s noone with a proven pedigree in charge of the daily operations of the team. Most of the problems last night looked to be disciplinary-the receivers couldn’t catch, be they stars like Landry and Beckham or young guys like Calloway (to whom Baker threw a perfect ball with no coverage at all and Calloway turned it into an interception), the line couldn’t block, and there were not adequate adjustments made to counter the pass rush.

Mayfield resorted to college backyard style tactics out of desperation. Many players looked like they gave up, with the exception of Mayfield, Chubb (who barely touched the ball despite being relatively effective), and many of the defenders (who of course are coached primarily by Wilks). It’s at times like these, when a team is down by a lot and your emotional stars are slouching, that a veteran head coach makes adjustments or manages his players to at least make an attempt at winning. But Kitchens seemed to give up as well, especially by refusing to go for it on fourth several times and allowing Mayfield to go into desperation mode way too early. The Browns’ defense gave them several stops late (especially after Kyle Juszcyck when down) and the offense wasted them on deep drops with no blocking adjustments and dropped passes.

The Browns needed a veteran coach to handle all of these personalities and make efficient offensive adjustments. Kitchens has not done so. They have a plethora of talent, even with their injuries, but they’re a team who is just now establishing a culture and there’s noone there right now to ensure that it ends up being a good one because their coach is out of his depth. Dorsey deserves blame to some extent for bringing all of these guys in and then going with the inexperienced Kitchens and thinking that it’ll be alright, but it’s ultimately Kitchens’ job to manage all of these things…even if he’s calling plays too.

“I’m way too good to do that. I just did too much.”
++++++++++++++++++++++
It’s all about Odel and how good he is. He was trying to do too much because he’s soooooooooooooo freakin good and had to save the day. There it is again….the massive, selfish ego. When Mr. Big Shot fumbled it away I jumped out of my chair and cheered with glee. Why?…..because it’s so awesome to see a self-centered, self-anointed, Egomaniac massively screw up and cough up a big, fat, juicy, ego-deflating, fur ball in front of a nationwide audience. Just perfect!